Membership Corner

ASPB members share a common goal of promoting the growth, development, and outreach of plant biology as a pure and applied science. This column features some of the dedicated and innovative members of ASPB who believe that membership in our Society is crucial to the future of plant biology.

If you are interested in contributing to this feature, please contact info@aspb.org.

Name: Joyce G. Foster
Title: Research Biochemist
Place of work or school: USDA–ARS, Appalachian Farming Systems Research Center, Beaver, West Virginia
Research area: Secondary metabolism in forage species; regulation of forage metabolite composition by environmental factors and agronomic practices; and implications of polyphenol, lipid, and antioxidant composition of forages for pasture-raised ruminant livestock.
Member since: 1975

1. Has being a member of ASPB helped you in your career? If so, how?
Yes. ASPB membership has resulted in contacts with plant scientists who have become valuable mentors. Discussion initiated at annual meetings has led to new research endeavors and fruitful collaborations.

2. Why has being a member of ASPB been important?
ASPB provides a networking mechanism that has facilitated access to experts as my research directions changed. It has also given me a means to contribute to the profession beyond conducting investigations and reporting results.

3. Was anyone instrumental in getting you to join ASPB?
Yes. My introduction to ASPB was made by my adviser, Dr. John Hess, during my first year of graduate study at Virginia Tech. I was truly committed to ASPB after serving on the local arrangements committee and helping Alice Kessler, a member of the headquarters staff, with meeting registration when the annual meeting was held in Blacksburg in 1978.

4. What would you tell nonmembers to encourage them to join?
ASPB is the leading professional organization of plant biologists. The Society and its annual meeting attract distinguished plant biologists from the United States and abroad and many talented students and postdocs. ASPB is recognized for the quality of its two journals, Plant Physiology and The Plant Cell. Through its book publishing partnership with John Wiley and Sons, ASPB can expand publication opportunities for members and provide members with more extensive distribution of their work. Public education activities conducted by the Society enhance the exposure of plant biologists and their research and have influenced members of Congress to support increased funding for plant biology research. And now, ASPB is initiating an autumn focus meeting in addition to the summer annual meeting.

5. Have you gotten a job using ASPB job postings or through networking at the annual meeting?
I used the placement service when investigating postdoctoral opportunities. Long-term professional relationships that developed from interactions at national and sectional meetings continue to have significant, positive impact on my research. My research assignment with ARS has changed several times, and that has made me appreciate the value of networking at the annual meeting.

6. Do you still read print journals? Where do you usually read them: work, home, library, in the car?
I prefer to read print journals because of their portability, and my personal subscriptions are predominantly print versions. I preview contents on electronic versions. Free online access to journals has been helpful because I am located at a remote facility with few library resources onsite. Although I am able to get reprints easily, not being able to page through journals to which I don’t subscribe limits my exposure to areas outside my specific research endeavors. I do a lot of my reading at the office because I am constantly developing and applying analytical methods. I also read scientific articles at home in the evenings.

7. What do you think is the next “big thing” in plant biology?
I think the area of secondary metabolism will resurface as a big thing, benefiting from the advances in functional genomics. Human nutrition and health issues will play an increasingly prominent role in guiding plant biology investigations.

8. What person, living or dead, do you most admire?
Gerry Edwards is one of the people I especially admire. He is constantly forging new territory; he has earned international respect and recognition for his accomplishments, and despite his great success, he remains a wonderfully approachable personality.

9. What are you reading these days?
Much of my professional reading concerns interactions between plants and animals. Topics of particular interest are the effects of plant metabolites on nutrient use efficiency and parasite control in small ruminants, especially meat goats, and the flavor and shelf-life of meat derived from pasture-raised animals. For pleasure I often choose books related to my career. I have just finished Eighty Acres: Elegy for a Family Farm, by Ronald Jager, which vividly and effectively captured my own experiences on the family farm. I recently read Seeds of Change: Five Plants That Transformed Mankind, by Henry Hobhouse, and this book is one I recommend to everyone having an interest in plants. Among my favorite books are the Mitford stories by Jan Karon. These I read purely for entertainment.

10. What are your hobbies?
Much of my free time is spent with my husband and other members of the American Chestnut Cooperators’ Foundation, trying to develop blight-resistant, all-American chestnut trees and restoring these trees to Appalachian forests.

11. What is your most treasured possession?
My most treasured possessions are my family and my memories of our times together.

12. What do you have left to learn?
I am constantly frustrated by how little I do know. I am lucky that my career affords opportunities to explore so many diverse topics in relative depth, but each new fact points to many more that need to be assimilated.